The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-16
THE waLL-sTREET GAME.
How It Is Played, and the Sort of Property
That Is Transferred

THE WALL-STREET GAME.
How It Is Played, and the Sort of Property
That Is Transferred.
'Gath's'' New York Letter.
The amount OF mere knowledge and sugges-
ton in Wall street is not very large. A news
paper man who has been looking at affairs for
years can scatter more thoughts around a
brokers' Office than the broker and all his
toners, perhaps; but when it comes to business
the newspaper man has not provided himself
with the credit nor courage and, however enter
tanning he may be a suggester. he is lame
quantity as a gambler. Brokers and men of
that class expand by experience until they very
seldom take time to argue anything. The last
and greatest efficiency of man is to go and do
the greatest thing. When they have talked
over a war in the Cabinet and the press they
call upon q general to execute the job. He very
seldom sits down to argue with his government
IL he is going TO keep his commission and re-
ceve his great opportunity he shows by his
pronptitude that they have not mistaken him,
and he is apt TO say. when asked when he can
move: II can move now!'
1t is Just the same in finance. You and Eve
other men who can command FIVE millions of
dollars have thought il well to 20 and buy prop
erty. You cannot buy it from individuals. 1t
10 represented in stocks bonds which are
brought TO the Exchange and put up there for
sale. A part Of the game is not let it be known
who is doing the buying. Yesterday, perhaps,
OF the stocks you want there were not quoted
more than thousand shares The broker goes
In and offers for all the stock he get an ad-
vance of TO per cent. That quotation is
flashed all over the country and set mp in every
exchange and brokers' Office. Hello" says
somebody to himself. quietly, 81 see that stock
is up / reckon it is my time TO SELL" So he
telegraphs to New York, to some broker there,
10 sell for him 500 shares. Similar orders come
from other sources Again the stock moves up
and bigger area of people prick up their ears
and wonder what is coming next
A-sI1 ~N~ 80
come in, and the broker covers it ali and assem-
bles it. and hands it over to his coterie Of Gus
toners, who say to themselves: THAT man is an
efficient broker: he did we'll by u.s." The COM
missions are paid up and the broker is happy,
and at the next turn in the same stock he gets
his share OF the selling to do.
Apply this to the case OF Mr. Mexican, of Indi
ana, who controlled the Vandalia railroad stock.
His line lay off there unsupported, portion of
the Pennsylvania system. A little circle of cap
italsts and railroad owners and SPECTATORS,
beaten at one end of the country wonder how
they can circumvent their enemy at the other
and distant end. They do not like 20 be known
as principals. They bethink them of q broker
who is universal factor, and he chooses the
right instrument add perhaps sends him to the
spot and commences overtures, saying: For
your particular stock and as much
amount, we will pay you price higher than
your stock has sold at for ten years. We will
treat you just as fairly you are treated now.
Indeed, we will give you a guarantee to that
effect, that you shall conduct this part as you
have before. It is merely trausferal to some
other parties of the property" The man sees
an opportunity to realize what he has been
managing for years. He reflects that this Is a
world Of mutations, and that what he is now to
receive will put him beyond ali possibilities. If
the broker negotiates for this stock he gets his
commission, just as If he bought il on the Stock
Exchange. provided he made that arrangement.
Thus brokers require at times to be diplomatists,
and the possession of temperament, of repu-
tation and of integrity goes a long way toward
insuring the faith which will sell out great
estate in a railroad or any other form.
But the broker who Is used on large errands of
this kind is not very frequent parsonage.
There is another kind of broker. such as saw
yesterday I was in Wall street, and man
stepped up to me with whom had an incidental
acquaint of years. had oven forgotten his
name He probably knew all about me that was
worth knowing. Said he: Come over here to
Cews's Office; want to show you the prettest
office down town."
So / stepped over to the ground or pavement
floor OK the Mills Building, where the sign of
Henry Clews was TO be seen every window.
Within the door kind of area, in which
we're disposed dozen or twenty chairs. On tho
wall were the quotations of every sort of thing
brokers deal in-grain, railroad shares, petroleum
trusts, cotton. etc
A young continually changing the
quotations as they came IN every minute. Tele-
graph instruments of every sort were bringing
news from Chicago, the Gil regions. New Or
leans, London and wherever the mundane crowd
was busy hypothecatng the future. small
man with high head, quite bald, seemed to be
the least energetic parsonage in the room. This
was Henry Clews. native of England, from
about Staffordshire. who came to America and
served his time in the financial quarter and
finally became a banker. and when the govern
ment sold it's bonds he got share to dispose of,
that he married the fine looking niece of Sec
rotary BelkEap
After exchanging a few sentences with Mr.
Clews, said to the man who introduced me:
''Is this busy day hereT
Yes. They have sold two million bushels OF
wheat here this morning, and every ten thou
sand bushels Of wheat bring the same commits
sion a hundred shares of stock"
So the great exchange of human nature and
10 terest starts up every morning soon after
o'clock, and the telegraph has connected the
spectators of the world with each other. and
personal property is the favorite commodity on
the globe.